Learning Nerd’s Diary #71
Welcome back Learning Nerds!
I’ve had a lot of conversations this past week on learning experience design. Fundamental questions like what is it? what does it mean? what exactly do I do? To sum up that mental state I’ve been in - this week’s newsletter goes back to the basics of LxD (& more!)
👀 Sneak peak
Here is what I have in store for you this week -
💭 Learning About Learning: Learning Experience = Restaurant
🥜 Learning Nugget: Goldilocks Learning
💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt This Week:
LxD Starter Toolkit
How to NOT design courses
Human Centered LxD
🔦 Spotlight: LxD Lab
Apologies for the delay in this week’s diary, I hope what’s inside makes up for it!
💭 Learning About Learning
Imagine this, you’re excited to go to a new restaurant. There is easy parking for your car. You’re greeted warmly at the door and the host makes sure you get a nice table. The ambience, decor and even the cutlery is pretty impressive. You order based on the host’s recommendation and the food and drinks are out of this world. The evening is over way too soon and you can’t wait to go back again.
Now imagine the same restaurant where the food is still out of the world but the host is rude or the ambience wasn’t as nice. Would you go back there again? Probably not. Food might be central to your restaurant experience but there are other factors at play.
A learning experience is like a restaurant. While your time with the facilitator is central to the experience, there are many other factors at play -
1/ Space
In a restaurant
There are some restaurants immediately make you feel comfortable, while others can make you feel completely out of place.
In a learning experience
Physical and digital classroom like Zoom and Google Meet have a affect on the learning experience.
2/ Community
In a restaurant
From the host to the chef, people are the pillars of your experience at a restaurant.
In a learning experience
For learning, your peers, facilitators, even administrators play that role.
3/ Tools
In a restaurant
Your cutlery, glasses - everything that helps you eat and enjoy the food (Sometimes that even includes the doggy bag)
In a learning experience
Books, workbooks, presentations, videos, chat - everything that helps you learn during the session and also helps you recall after the session
4/ Culture
In a restaurant
We’ve all been to restaurants who will make you feel like they’re doing you a favour by giving you a glass of water. While others will go out of their way to make you feel comfortable.
In a learning experience
Your relationship with your facilitator, your peers, how you interact with them, what’s okay and not is determined a lot by the classroom culture.
5/ Usability
In a restaurant
The ease of finding parking at a restaurant, whether you’re able to have a conversation without shouting, if you’re able to understand the names of the dishes on the menu - the devil lies in the details.
In a learning experience
Legibility of the presentation, clarity in the voice of the instructor, the ease of using a workbook - might seem like small things but have a huge role to play.
🥜 Learning Nuggets
Find your goldilocks formula for learning.
No one size fits all.
💥 Coolest Thing I Learnt this Week
LxD Starter Toolkit
My friend and partner in crime for all things learning - Harsh Doshi put together this LxD Starter Toolkit for anyone who wants to learn more about Learning Experience Design. It has:
5 articles to begin with
5 books to read
5 newsletters/podcasts to subscribe
5 people to follow
5 tools to use
Check it out!
How to NOT design courses
I came across this post last week and it really cracked me up!
“When a course becomes the default solution to a Needs Analysis...”
Human Centered LxD
As someone who went to design school, the overlap of human centred design and learning experience design seems apparent. This article does a great summary of 4 design principles one can use for human centered learning experience design:
It’s about people
Solve the root problems
Everything is related
Design in small steps
🔦 Spotlight
Some exciting stuff is brewing at the LxD Lab! Can’t wait to share more updates -
Love & Learning
Until we meet next week!
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